The Age of the Animox
by Dracannia
Summary: Children across the world have woken up to discover that they have drastically changed. Their bodies are massive, semi-robotic, and animalistic. Why? They can't remember. Memories of their old lives have faded away. What they do know is they were created for a purpose, to fight in a war that was never theirs to fight. [16 and up, TF:P, rebooted from an old fic.]
1. I: Good Morning

At last, I've finally reached the point where I have enough of this story to put up a few confident chapters! This version of _Maximals Reborn_ has been a long time coming and it's going to be better than what my 14 year-old self would've come up with. It takes place way before the show itself starts. You won't see Jack, Miko, or Raf at all.

16+ rating for language and future scenes. I'm sure you can handle it for the most part, but if it's something I think is extreme then I'll post warnings.

* * *

I. Good Morning

It was fortunate that panic was not the emotion that began the day. When she woke up, she expected to be at home, not in the middle of the woods. Home… Where was home? She could not remember her home. She questioned if she even had one. Perhaps this was a dream, just a crazy dream about amnesia. She knew where this dream came from; it had to be from the fear of forgetting. So vivid did this dream feel that it terrified her.

She knew she had a family. There was no doubt there. She had to have come from somewhere. What if she came from nothing? No, that was insane. Everyone comes from somewhere. Law of matter says that nothing is made from nothing; something has to be from something… or something along those lines. She was matter, a living thing, and therefore she had an origin.

It was time to wake up. If the dream continued, she would linger and wake up too late. School. She went to a school… What's a school? She had to wake up, to get ready, to eat, make it… where? Get out of this dream before it turned into a nightmare. Bad dreams before going to… _that place_, whatever it was again, would have her disturbed for the rest of the morning, unless she would later forget them. But no, she was too awake now to forget this dream. But at least it would only be a memory.

She closed her eyes tight, and opened them again to see the woods. She was awake. She wondered if this truly was a dream, and she focused on little details like the feeling of the grass and the rugged lines of the tree barks, the sound of the wind and the warmth of the rising sun. She could finally feel her own body accepting a new reality. She felt heavy and strange, her gut a bit cold. Even her anatomy had felt different. She tried to stand, awkwardly upright on her legs, and so fell back down to fours. Her spine no longer supported her that way, and her legs were jointed backwards. She looked at herself. She was made of blue and black metal. Her hands were clawed. Something else felt wrong; there was something on her back. Two jointed stalks were set up symmetrically behind the shoulders. They could stretch, so she craned her neck around to look at them, those strange limbs that ended in points. The strain in her neck now… She could feel it. Her neck was elongated as well. What else was wrong? Something else about her back, the lower back, specifically her poor spine. A thick tail extended the rest of her.

She spoke, straining the words slowly. Her voice no longer worked as it had before. It did not require air in her lungs and her throat was not sensitive enough to feel the familiar vibrations that had dulled her voice to herself.

"What happened to me?"

She did not expect an answer. A voice behind her said, "No one knows."

It was a similar creature, in a way. This one had brown fur and pink spots in certain areas of the metallic plating, and no strange limbs on its back. It was much smaller as well, and sounded young and feminine.

"Who are you?"

"Let me go first. Do you remember anything?"

"No, not… really, I think." Even as she spoke, the sense of dread that she had earlier was quickly fading, and she could not remember why she had felt so worried to begin with.

"So, you don't know what you are?"

"No…" The other just nodded. "Listen, can you tell me what's going on here? I'm confused."

The furred creature smiled, rows of fangs white as the clouds above. "I'm not good at explaining things, but I can take you to someone who is. There's a whole group of us. It's your choice."

"My choice? What choice?"

"Fend for yourself, or join the crew."

"Doesn't seem like much of a choice."

The other giggled, which sounded like an assortment of noises hiccupping over each other. "I'm Crocuta. What's your name?"

"It's… I don't know what it is."

"It'll come to you, in about ten seconds, probably. For some, it takes a while."

A name did come. It was a familiar name, yet unknown. When she said it, it felt right.

"Dracannia."

"Sticking with the whole dragon theme, huh? Follow me, Dracannia. I know Makzmaj would like to see you."

xXx

A/N: I honestly can't remember where I pulled the name "Makzmaj" from and none of my backtracking research helps... As before with _Maximals Reborn_, the main female's my self-insert and that's why she carries the name. But this time around I made her less confident. I know for a fact my 12 or 13 year-old self wouldn't be as Icefire was, so I'm cutting back on the Mary Sue-ness.


	2. II: The Clan

II. The Clan

"Who's Mak… Uh, Mackie, Maxie…"

"Mak-z-maj," Crocuta said, slowly pronouncing the syllables. "I had trouble with that too. He's what you'd call our leader. And he's only really called that because he was the first to 'wake up.'" She paused for a minute, head high and ears forward. She heard a rustle of leaves not too far from them. It was only a bird. They moved on.

"He's only leader because he was here first?" Dracannia questioned. "That's not a good system."

"It's not like we treat him like royalty or anything. He just kind of sits there and bosses us."

"Sounds mean."

"He sounds like he knows what he's doing. I trust him. We all do. That's all that matters right now."

Dracannia kept herself low to avoid tree branches. Though when they scraped her skin, they never bothered her. She wanted to ask more questions, to see what else the hyena knew, but she was only answered with, "I just told you, Makzmaj will explain it all. You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"

"I have a lot of them."

"Well, Max has a lot of answers. Oh, don't tell him I called him Max; he hates that."

"I'll remember."

From then on, they remained silent. Dracannia was told that it was important they were not heard. Humans, Crocuta clarified, were typically hostile. Some looked on the enormous creatures in wonder, but most others would scream or attempt to attack, and a few in the clan were being hunted.

"Why do they hate us?" the dragon whispered, in case one was listening.

"Imagine being small and squishy," Crocuta said. "I'd be scared of me too. Now shut up. We're close to a campground."

Dracannia could smell food and fires coming from the east. It smelled familiar for some reason, but no memory came to mind. She stood still a moment, trying to reach into the back of her mind for something she did not know. Crocuta barked once to get her attention. They had to keep moving.

They walked for half an hour, with very few words exchanged and many stops to make sure nothing unfriendly was within earshot. Dracannia noticed how the smaller, furred one kept her head low when the smell of something else lingered in the air. When it was especially strong, she let the dragon know it was the scent of mankind, so that whenever she was alone and sensed it in the air, she would steer clear of them. Through the rustle of leaves and twittering of birds, she could hear laughter. Crocuta had painted the majority of humans as malevolent beings, but such joyous sounds could not come from evil, could it?

Deeper into the woods, in a spot between steep mountains and lush greenery, was a stream where Makzmaj's clan of at least a dozen colorful techno-organics resided. When Crocuta appeared with a new member, all eyes looked to see who the newcomer was. Then they went back to what they were doing, which was not much in the first place. Everyone seemed to be in a lazy, relaxed state. Every now and then a younger one would play with another's tail, and the latter would accept it knowing the child needed to be entertained.

Crocuta brought their new member to the other end of the congested group, to a red and black dragon of a larger build. He was quite imposing compared to her, with spikes lined down his back, ending the tail in a mass of them. His horns branched, a large set curving high upwards and the lower curving forward to flank his jaw. He was lying down by the stream, shifting the small rocks with boredom.

"Here she is, sir," Crocuta said with her head low. "Can we leave now?"

When Makzmaj spoke, he sounded about as old as Dracannia, if not a bit older, and his accent was foreign to her. Her amnesia forbade her to place it.

"You're confused, aren't you?"

She turned her head down, but never kept eyes off of him, and responded, "How did you know?"

"Similar experience." He stood up, stretching his wings wide. He chuckled as Dracannia lowered her head. "You are no different than anyone else here. However, you had the luxury of someone waiting for you. Some of us had awoken alone. Myself, I was hundreds of kilometers north, alone for some time. I had no idea what was happening, thinking myself as some sort of newborn creature abandoned by its parents."

"Are we?" Dracannia perked her head back up.

"Are we what?"

"Are we all abandoned? Are we all orphans?"

"I do not feel so."

"Why not?"

"You are full of questions, aren't you?"

"I told her that," Crocuta butted in. She was lounging on a grass patch as a red and orange bird played with her twitching tail until she sat up and barked at them to stop.

"I won't learn if I don't ask questions."

"No need to defend yourself, girl," Makzmaj said, smiling. Dracannia stared at the rows of sharp teeth, contouring the jagged lines in between. "Even I still have questions, with answers to very few. Before I start, what do you call yourself?"

"Dracannia."

"Wear the name well, for it's yours and was gifted to you."

"Gifted? By wh–" She bit her lip before she finished. They were right; most of what she said since she woke up had been questions.

"I have been granted certain abilities. Along with being able to breathe fire and spit poison, I have had visions of our creation, vague as it was. These bodies we are in have been created for an important task." He looked up to the sky. "There are invaders coming. Aggressive beings. Some will be our enemies, some friends, and we will fight."

"We're only here to fight?" Dracannia said with a grimace. "I didn't agree to that."

"How do you know that you didn't?"

"I… don't know. I don't remember anything. It just feels like I wouldn't say yes to something like that. Er, like this…"

"Mm. We were each created for a defined purpose. There is no choice in that."

"That doesn't sound fair."

Makzmaj glared at her, his green eyes brightening. He stood, his size frightening her enough to make her shrink back. "I have told you that aliens are coming to fight us. You are an Animox. Do you think that this is a fate that you can avoid? How would you feel knowing the world may be torn apart from our battles and you did nothing to help?"

Dracannia shied herself away, lowering her body to the ground, breaking eye contact.

"For someone who asks many questions, you should be prepared to answer others'."

She stayed on the ground, never looking back up at him. She did not know what to say, and even if she did, she was too scared to say it.

"You were the last one in this area to awaken," he continued. "We need to move on. The invaders will show far to the west, and we need to be there, ready for them." He turned his attention to a golden eagle and ordered him to scout ahead, to find a route with the least number of humans.

The dragoness slowly stood back up, looking around at the sudden activity from the napping animals—or Animox, as Makzmaj had put it. There was a tiger who was not moving from her perch on the rock, just watching everyone else. Dracannia walked up to her to greet her.

"Um… hello."

"Hey."

"We're going soon. Should probably get up."

"I don't get up until Thunderwing gets back. He could take hours."

"Oh. Then I should rest up, huh?"

"Gee, I wonder who could've thought of that." The tiger rolled her eyes.

The dragoness lay under the rock, enjoying the shade. "What's your name?"

"Tigress."

"Aw, I could've guessed that."

"Just as original as a dragon named Dracannia."

The sarcasm was not lost on her. Since Tigress did not seem to be up for conversation, she stayed quiet until the eagle returned. She roused from her spot and Tigress leapt off of hers. Dracannia was going to follow her, but decided against it. Given her attitude, she did not sound like she wanted company. Instead she paired with Crocuta, and the hyena introduced her to others of their group.

"Are you sure you're a dragon?" one asked. It was the red bird from earlier who had been playing with Crocuta's tail. She had an obvious name as well; Phoenix. And she sounded like she was about Crocuta's age, maybe younger.

"Why do you ask?"

"You don't have wings like Maxie! You just have bendy sticks."

Dracannia paused to look at her back, craning her neck around to see. It was true, she did not have the strong webbing that Makzmaj had on his wings. Hers was a skeletal base.

"Ooh, looks like someone's undercooked," the cobra, Viper, stated.

The dragoness frowned. She had the look of one, but what was a dragon without flight?

"Maybe I'll introduce myself as a drake from now on," she said.

"Yeah, just to be safe. But don't feel bad. At least you have limbs and claws." Viper slithered along the ground to make her point.

xXx

A/N: When I first uploaded the first chapter way back on deviantART, someone asked why Drac didn't have regular dragon wings and there was a reason that I hope they log back on to read. This one's the short version, the long version comes much later.


	3. III: The Westward Migration

III. The Westward Migration

They spent months getting to the West. Everyone walked for the vastness of the trip. At night, Makzmaj would fly ahead to check the next area for towns to avoid. If there were none, the next day they would take off running to make better time. They paused here and there to welcome some more Animox into their fold. There was a chimera with three separate identities to match its three heads, the lion and the goat at the front and the snake to watch their back as a tail—respectively, they were called Leo, Capra, and Serpen when being addressed separately; all males. And another group of three later on, of a wolf, panther, and monkey. The wolf acted as the protector of the other two, referring to them by his younger sisters. They had awoken all at the same time, and encountered many belligerent humans. When the wolf, Nightfang, talked with Makzmaj, he mentioned that he, too, felt the pull to go west.

Over time, Dracannia came to know each of the ever-growing group. Vulpus, the fox, was the first Makzmaj had met. He was considered his right-hand man. Hellcat was a strange mixed breed of a housecat with bat wings. She became a quick friend to Tigress, often wandering off with her. The Chimera she could not make much sense of; it seemed like they were triplets stuck in one body. Kakos was another young Animox, a bat, who was unfortunately and ironically afraid of heights. The two "sisters" of Nightfang's were Panthora and Biba. Panthora turned the Tigress-Hellcat duo into a trio, and Biba jumped around between the groups that would accept her company but stuck with the much younger Animox.

Dracannia realized that none of them were adults, except perhaps Makzmaj. All of them were kids, juveniles. She brought up this point to their leader, and he laughed.

"I only know as much as you do," he said. "By now I have run out of answers for you."

"Then come up with something. Make up an answer that makes sense. Why have all the Animox we've met—why are we all kids?"

Makzmaj thought for a while. "Children are associated with purity."

"But we're about to fight in a war. Are they looking to get rid of that purity?"

"Who are 'they'?"

"_Something_ made us! And you know that we were made to fight! Something made us, someone gave us a mission, whether some of us agreed to it or not. That's who 'they' are, 'they' are our creators."

"Interesting thought."

"But I still want to know, why all kids?"

"You seem to be the creative one. Let me know when you craft an answer."

She mulled over the thought while they continued with their migration, but no reasonable answer came to mind. She knew if she had said any of her half-baked thoughts out loud, they would sound like ramblings. These fleeting thoughts came to unsettle her and she looked around for something else to think about, something else to focus her mind to. She studied the way Viper's scales moved on her bright underside to push herself forwards. She saw how Nightfang's ears moved towards the smallest sounds of leaves shifting and birds singing. She looked at how Tigress' tail kept steady as she walked, how Phoenix's tail flicked, the gleaming yellow of Thunderwing's feathers, the veins in the webbing of Kakos' wings as he stretched them…. Observation during this trek became a game to her. After an hour or so, Biba asked her why she was staring at everyone. When the "game" was explained, the younger one joined her to keep herself occupied until she was bored and fell asleep on Dracannia's back.

* * *

The Animox made it to a series of mountains after what seemed like a month's worth of travel. Having to dodge around settlements and civilizations lengthened this journey. At the base of one of the mountains, Makzmaj told his band of mutants that they had arrived. Whatever was going to happen would occur here. They would carve out bits of this mountain for living spaces and wait. The strongest of them started to punch, carve, and move rocks. Here is when little Biba discovered her hidden talent. She proved to be so strong that she could split a boulder many times her size. However, oddly, her punches against everything else had no effect. Makzmaj believed it was an unknown characterization bias of her ability.

The rocks that had been moved out were discarded into a nearby lake. This stirred two new members of the Animox who had steadily swam their way to this point with great difficulty. They were Styg and Chelydrus. Styg was a shark, Chelydrus a massive serpent. Both had scars from accidental encounters and from scraping shallow waters.

Vulpus, Viper, and Tigress were sent out to hunt for food, bringing back a bunch of rodents, horses, and deer. Chelydrus, who was in far less pain than his friend from injuries, went around the lake and down several connecting rivers to bring back a pile of live fish that he dumped from his massive jaw, much to the others' disgust.

"You know how hard it was to not eat all of them?" he expressed. Dracannia noted his accent was somehow odd too. "All of them wiggling around—"

"Okay, I'm trying to eat here!" Panthora shouted up at him.

Later at night, both Hellcat and Tigress stayed outside. Everyone lay in their little alcoves in the mountainside, staying close to keep warm. The moon was crescent tonight, providing very little light that made their feline eyes shine bright.

"Finally, we stopped walking," Hellcat said. "My paws are fucking aching."

Tigress turned her head to her. "How old are you?"

"Oh, are you going to tell me I can't say 'fuck' because I'm a kid?"

"I'm a kid too, I was just fucking asking."

Hellcat smiled, which looked more like a sneer. "I don't know. Does twelve sound good?"

Tigress looked out at the water. "We don't even know how old we are."

"Maybe it just doesn't matter."

"We walked for weeks to come live in caves to wait on some crap Makzmaj thinks is going to happen. You heard him and Drac talking. Something made us, and they like him enough to give him visions and shit, so maybe he's one of them."

"You think so?"

"We're giant, half-robot animals in a world of small, squishy humans. I'd believe it. We're not supposed to be here."

"Or something bad happened and we all forgot who we were."

"Alright, that's getting a bit too creepy."

"Then quit thinking about it and pretend it doesn't matter."

A minute of silence passed between them to mull over what they said. Right when Hellcat was about to say something, they saw a streak of light in the sky, accompanied by a distant roar.

xXx

A/N: ...Alright, yeah, there's a lot of OCs, but I've got to split them up at some point. Why do you think slasher movies get so many characters?


	4. IV: Landfall

IV. Landfall

Three were sent to investigate what had entered into the atmosphere. Makzmaj's knowledge burdened him with paranoia. There was no doubt in his mind that this was the beginning of the foreseen invasion. Kakos, Phoenix, and Crocuta were to scout the general area. They were told not to get curious, only confirm that this was either a meteorite or a transport. They were to return by sunset and report.

The children went missing.

The pack leader did not want anyone to feel alarmed. The elder children knew he was trying to minimize the panic. "We only have room for one person at a time to freak out, and I'd rather it not be our boss," as Vulpus put it while he nipped at the thorns stuck to his bushy tail. The others were inclined to agree.

"We should look for them," Tigress said, but kept her head low to act like it was someone else's suggestion in case it was not well received.

"Good idea," Dracannia agreed. "A search party, or rescue mission."

"I've already sent three to their possible deaths," Makzmaj said. "I won't risk anyone else. We'll keep moving."

"And what if they're not dead?" the Chimera said in chorus.

"Can't you sense them?" Viper asked their leader. "You're always on about sensing this and that; can't you tell if the kids are alive?"

"Knowledge of the future doesn't give me knowledge of the present."

"You have shit powers."

"Better than yours."

She almost bit him. He looked around at his council. "I can tell none of you are in favor of abandoning them. Even our brothers who are unable to leave their aquatic environs." Chelydrus rested his long neck along the dirt from the lake, and Styg was limited to peering above the surface level of the water. Both shifted in response to Makzmaj's acknowledgement. "I am just one, so I must obey the majority. Vulpus, pick one or two to go with you."

The fox nodded and took a moment to choose whom he thought most capable and suited for a potential rescue mission. "Thunderwing. Dracannia."

Both the eagle and drake stepped forward, Thunderwing with surprise and Dracannia with hesitation.

"It was my idea, I should go," Tigress argued.

"Maybe next time, kitty cat."

The female felines all hissed to support their sister, and the leonine head of the Chimera raised in challenge for his kin sisters. Vulpus ignored them. He made his choice with permission of their pack alpha and they had no more room to oppose authoritative decisions.

The rescue party ate and mobilized. Thunderwing did not see human activity from the air, but they were not going to assume that forest rangers and satellites did not see it. The eagle spotted the alien body, leading the party to it. The blue flightless drake halted them when it was in sight.

"Look," she said.

"I see it," Vulpus scoffed.

"No, _look_. This is a deliberate spot."

The fox took a second look and understood what she was trying to say. The object was in a small open field, no streak of disturbed earth or fallen trees. Only particles of dirt covering fresh growth suggested its safe arrival. It did not fall—it landed.

"Good point."

"I don't see the others."

"Maybe they're inside."

A compartment opened underneath the transport. Four metallic bipeds walked out. Their eyes were a single V-shaped slanted visor, bright red in contrast to their purple and silver body enamel. Each had an arm raised and it was only a second after the lights appeared did the Animox notice they were aiming their bio-weapons.

It was the lack of fear from their elder that kept Dracannia and Thunderwing from fleeing. Dashing, barking, Vulpus charged. There was a shimmer around his form as two more bodies split from his as perfect mirrors. They crisscrossed in their paths, confusing the attackers. The glamour dissipated when the true Vulpus leapt on a drone. With three of them occupied with tearing the fox off their doppelganger, the younger Animox attacked and discovered their new abilities. Thunderwing's talons sparked with power, electrocuting the weaponized servo of a surprised drone to render it useless. Dracannia bit the neck of another. There was a surge of cold centered at the base of her throat, and it crawled up her long neck to release at the maw. An explosion of ice penetrated spikes in the drone's neck. It did not die immediately, kneeling to claw at the frozen stakes in vain.

Reinforcements came from the ship. The final drone ran to hide in the numbers. The Animox hissed, snarled, and gekkered in warning. The group of identical soldiers almost fired when a voice from elsewhere in the ship demanded to know what was going on. The three mutants remained on alert while glancing at each other, each thinking the same thing: The voice spoke in no language they heard before, yet, somehow, they knew it.

A new form broke through the ranks of identical faces. He looked nothing like them, but shared their metallic traits. He was thinner, his face longer, had stiff stationary wings on his back, two red eyes, and ten long talons that Vulpus was keeping sharp eyes on.

"More mongrels," the strange one growled in his native tongue.

Dracannia stopped growling and sniffed the air. She could smell familiar scents from inside the ship. She looked to Vulpus. His nose was twitching with the same realization. Their missing Animox were inside the shuttle.

"We can—" He paused. An Earth language would not do. He coughed, adjusting to mimic the sonic dialect the aliens seemed to use, and, to his confusion, one he was able to understand and speak. "We c-can sssolve this… peaceful—with peace."

The thin mech grinned, scraping the claws of one hand with a thumb.

"Amusing," he said. "It knows how to speak."

"Let our brothers, sisters…. Let go! Let them go!" The fox hacked from the strain the words put on his half-organic throat. "We can… peace!"

"Are they looking to surrender?" the winged stranger asked rhetorically to a nearby solider. "I can't really tell."

The drake stepped forward and rumbled the gunk from her own throat in order to speak. She spoke slowly to avoid hiccups like her elder. "You have. Three of us. Release."

"You're ordering _me_, monster?"

Dracannia noticed the way the other's mouth had barely moved as he spoke. Only a twitch here and there to relay his emotions. Maybe oral movement was not required for him to speak. Maybe he didn't even have a tongue. After all, he looked completely a robot.

"Partner. Ship. Friends."

His posture straightened. The snarl disappeared and he asked, "Are you the leader?"

She lowered her head and answered, "No."

"Is he?" He pointed to Vulpus.

She shook her head silently.

"Do you _have_ a leader?" He sounded vexed.

"Scouts!" Thunderwing answered. The vowels came out louder than he intended, so he kept his beak shut in embarrassment.

"Ssscout party," Vulpus clarified. "We have… leee—leader."

"Let's see if I have this right… You want to organize a partnership in exchange for your fellow beasts' release?"

The three Animox nodded between each other in quiet agreement that nothing could be more important than securing the lives of their packmates. They were outnumbered, outmatched. If they all were to get out with their furs, feathers, and scales intact, an alliance was to be called to order.

The commander smirked and his optics gleamed.

"Bring your leader. I'll see what we can arrange."

xXx

A/N: I honestly believe that Cybertronians only move their mouths when speaking an Earth language so _we_ feel comfortable about it.


End file.
